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Friday, March 23, 2012

Why I like supermodel Niki Taylor

When I wrote the post about
fashion and designers, I‘ve mentioned that I was into modeling and models.

As I
read fashion magazines around my 10-11, I noticed the models photographed. Late
1982 (on 2 ELLE France December issues), one model drew my attention. It was a
lovely blue eyed and sublime young woman from Denmark : Renee Toft Simonsen.
She won the Ford Agency contest face of the 80’s. She was going to be one of
the few models whom can be honored to be called “supermodels”. She became one
of my true favorites (basically, the only one !) and I always thought that she
was the most gorgeous woman in the world (and still !). So, I started
collecting on her and pen palled with dozens of fans around the world : “Models
collecting business” as we nicknamed ourselves.

The trading was
papers/covers/clippings and we posted abroad weekly anything we found out (and
bought the magazines for) to our “traders” and their wishing lists. Renee
entered into another dimension than fashion when she began to date Duran Duran
bassist John Taylor in the mid-80’s and attracted Duran Duran fans ! The
trading became hectic and it was quite a full time job to look through
magazines at the newsstands and get the ones my pen pals might want. It was
expensive too. Very expensive !

Anyhow, I kept on pen palling and
trading until a Seventeen magazine confused me and my collection life. It was
SEVENTEEN, US magazine, September 1989. I had subscribed to that magazine
because I liked a fashion photographer, Paul Lange, and he was doing a lot of
photos with it. On that particular issue, a blonde and skinny model drew my
attention and I asked directly the photographer about her name. His answer was
Niki Taylor. I’d been told that she did a few Italian GRAZIA magazines (along
with another soon-to-be famous model : Carla Bruni) and did the August 1989
SEVENTEEN cover. I knew instantly that Niki Taylor would be a terrific and
great model. It was printed on the paper. She was astounding and so fresh. So,
I wrote to any of my pen pals and asked for “Niki Taylor only”. I stopped Renee
Simonsen collection (she was kind of quitting the modeling business, though).

Here start my collection about
Niki. Yes, I can call her Niki. I’ve been collecting on her for 23 years now
and I know her career so well, that she could be a professional relative of
mine. But I’ve never been (too) intrusive into her private life.

Niki is the incarnation of
beauty, kindness and cleverness. She is smart, a great human being (due
probably to her parents, whom are delightful and caring persons), and a strong
woman. Her life is well-known by most Americans. She’s been through so much in
a so very short time that she looks like invulnerable.

From her early years, 1989 and
the fastness of her line of business (1991-1993) to the Red Cross Ambassador
(2010-2011) and mother of 4, she’s been into so much joys and pains.

Apart from her divorce, her car
wreck in 2001 (in which she nearly died, and went under 2 months of coma and
months of recoveries and dozens of surgeries) her greatest pain is surely
the loss of sibling Krissy, back on July 2nd 1995. I will post about Krissy later this month because she does deserve to be celebrated and that she
is missed so much.

Anyhow, Niki endures a lot and
despite her eyes looked darken on some pictures (especially the Delano layout
from ELLE December 1995, a few months after Krissy’s passing), she was still
smiling and looking healthy.

She is down to earth and surely knows
that she is an exception in this modeling business (she’s one of supermodels,
along with Cindy, Naomi, Christy, Linda, Helena, Claudia, Kate etc. You know
the ones you don’t have to say the name to exactly identify whom they are, Supermodels
of the 90’s). Been close to be a “retired model” but never stopped to work and
been asking for commercial, advertising or even editorial. Putting Niki Taylor
in a cover is being sure to double selling !

Nowadays, Niki works for her
company, runs a shop, does TV shows, some editorials and covers, offers her
face and fame to American Red Cross, helps others women through her NikiTaylorInc.,
enjoys her family, her friends and her way of life, raises four children (twin
boys Jake & Hunter born in 1994, Ciel born in 2009 and Rex Harrison born in
2011) with her husband, Burney Lamar.

She shall never stop to incarnate
the perfection to me. The older she gets, the more respect I have for her.
I guess that everyone has its own heroes in life, people you are referring to
whenever you need a bit of strength. For me, one of the happy few is Niki, someone
whom gives me strength, happiness (knowing that she is blissed in her life
lately) and the determination to go on. It might be a bit superficial or stupid
to say so, to call a supermodel a leader, but her job doesn’t determine what
she is inside.

Once a magazine referred to Niki
as “Supermodel, Super sexy, Supermom, Super smart… Niki Taylor is gorgeous
inside and out”, it sumps up it all.